Grail-Watch
76
Jean d’Eve Samara
Here’s a rare watch for you!
This is a 1989 Jean d’Eve Samara, the first Swiss automatic quartz watch. It launched at Basel in 1987, the same show Seiko launched the AGS (now Kinetic). But unlike the “plain Jane” Seiko, this thing is wild!
The rotor is on the dial side, below the hands, and runs around the outside of the dial in the UFO shaped case. The rotor has an unusual shape that resembles a maple seed (“samara”) giving it the name. The crown is on the back, as is a port for a battery starter. It runs on electrical power from a capacitor, which went bad sometime over the last 30 years.
It has been in for service since May. I am not entirely thrilled about that, but that’s a different story for a different day. For now, I am enjoying having this incredibly rare watch on my wrist! I doubt there are many others that are functional anymore!
One more weird note: This is the same watch worn by the villain Cohaagen in the 1990 film Total Recall!
Jean d’Eve Samara
Cool❣️ I liked this Jean d’Eve a lot at the time it came out! 👍🏻😍
